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powercon 300sm welder?

02-19-2013, 07:07 PM

I found a powercon 300 sm welder on Craigslist for $150 obo. The guy said he found it in a storage unit that he bought and it has all the cables for it. It appears that it's set up for stick, which is what I'm wanting. I looked them up and apparently the company was bought out by miller awhile back. I was just wondering if any of y'all have heard or this welder or have any insight on it. It looks like its been used a fair amount but not too much.

I used to have the 200SM, and regret selling it. The SM stands for stick/mig. Mine had the PowCon wore feed sitting on top of the main unit. You have a switch that goes from stick to mig to spray transfer mig.
Arc Products in California bought all of the spare parts when PowCon folded. You can adapt another brand wire feeder to it.

1245 30th Street
San Diego, CA 92154

619-628-1022
800-770-0063

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Do you know if you can buy new leads for them and if they're expensive? Or do leads just swap out between different welders? Sorry if that's a stupid question, I'm fairly new to welding and haven't had my own machine. The electrode holder wire in the pics look like its been repaired and not in very good shape. But it seems like a good price if they're not expensive to replace.

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They use a Tweco style twist lock connector, IIRC. Even if the wire is bad, the connectors should still be OK. You can buy Tweco electrode holders and ground clamps cheap on eBay. My 200 SM was the easiest starting stick machine I have ever used, but it takes some getting used to the sound it makes when welding.

I paid $125 for mine used in 1998 (new in 1976) and sold it on eBay in 2004 for $1500.00.

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I think I've decided not to buy it just yet. I don't have a 220 volt plug and I'd have to run one. I don't really have a need for a welder right now since I'm still in school. I was just going to use it to practice on but I think I'm gonna wait until I'm more set up for it and have more money to all the other accessories I would need. Thanks everyone for the information!